7/05/2006 @ 6:00AM

Biggest Importers And Exporters

The trade of the world moves in containers. Last year, 17,377,965 containers were imported into the United States. Of those, one out of 25 was destined for the retail giant Wal-Mart Stores. The United States is both a leading importer and a leading–but unusual–exporter of containers.

Any judgment of the effects of the U.S. container trade needs to be placed within the context of the less-than-glorious U.S. trade imbalance. A good look at the figures may offer a clue.

Wal-Mart
leads in container imports. It not only leads, but is widening its margin against the next biggest importer,
Target
. Wal-Mart imported 695,000 containers last year. For those who can’t conceive of the scale, it might help to know that its imports are the equivalent, in volume, of more than eight of Cheop’s Great Pyramids of Giza. Now that is big.

The data listing the 100 largest importers and exporters (this report lists just the top ten) is drawn from the Port Import/Export Reporting Service (PIERS) Trade Horizons. PIERS is the research arm of The Journal of Commerce.

The data, assembled under the direction of Dr. Michael Andrews, chief economist for PIERS, suggest that while U.S. imports are mostly consumer goods, U.S. exports are mostly of low-value commodities such as wastepaper, chemicals, forest products (wood pulp for instance), cotton and other basics.